New York Times, Monday, July 31, 2023

DAVID: Hey, everyone! I'm from San Diego and am currently a physics student at the University of Chicago. I've been constructing since early high school, and I'm thrilled to make my NYT debut!

The theme for this puzzle came to me back in September when I was working on a politics podcast. I was brainstorming "court-adjacent" titles for an episode about a district court when I realized "See You In Court" could make for a nice crossword theme.

Looking back at email archives, original drafts of the puzzle included a "Food Court" themer and SHAQUILLE ONEAL. Andrea and I went through a couple of rounds of cluing, but luckily, my favorite hung around: 38-Down.

I really want to thank Andrea for co-constructing this with me; she has such a great sense of what works and what doesn't in a puzzle, and we are delighted with how it turned out.

ANDREA: David, the son of an old college classmate of mine, is exceedingly bright with nifty ideas and was inspiring and easy to work with.

We were excited to be the first to get King Charles III into the puzzle as his coronation was looming when we wrote this.

I was also pleased that both the athlete and the judge we chose who reign Supreme in different courts were both female and people of color. :)

He has followed my footsteps as a podcast namer, a crossword constructor, and now a published Monday Guy! I'm glad he's too young to have seen "All About Eve."

Hoping future collaborations to follow. Or at least enjoy his continued success from afar!

Such fun connections, three people we might SEE in three different walks of COURT life — wide range of meanings, from a tennis court to a royal court to a legal court. I appreciated that this wasn't an ordinary "what connects these seemingly disparate elements" theme, taking it one step further by employing specific celebrities to further obfuscate the concept.

If only the revealer had been COURT DISASTER, and the names had been JOHN MCENROE, KING LEOPOLD II, and SAMUEL ALITO! Ha ha, I cannot be serious!

For two of the three, at least.

Order in the court, settle down, Jeff!

Themers of 13 and 14 letters are such a pain to work with. Those bulbous Utah blocks are one way to build around the 13s ... it might have been possible to do without them, removing all three black squares after OLDE and blocking out the E of OLDE. That is a much harder arrangement, though, with fewer choices for the long Down in that corner.

Delightful long Downs in CLOWN CAR and EVIL EYES — such fun injected into a Monday solve. CHIMES IN isn't as strong, but it's more a complete phrase than some other "add-a-preposition" entries.

Well done to finish with only one noticeable ding in I HAD. An extra black square could have helped smooth it out down there, but 44 black squares is already well above average, nearly pushing the grid past a block party.

It's awkward to think of seeing a tennis player in court, not on the court, but the next-level concept courted me in the end. POW!